ALEC’s Health Care Freedom Initiative

In March 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. ALEC state legislators have successfully worked to expose the truth about ObamaCare and fight back—one state at a time—with the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.

ALEC has played a key role in educating lawmakers with itsState Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare, which provides 14 specific recommendations to push back against ObamaCare and 18 ALEC model bills that make health care more secure, affordable, and accessible.

ALEC’s amicus brief to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was cited by the majority in State of Florida and National Federation of Independent Business v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ALEC’s brief—which was submitted on behalf of its legislators, in support of the plaintiffs—was one of two briefs cited by the majority in striking down the individual mandate. ALEC filed an additional amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the minimum coverage provision, or individual mandate, in ObamaCare is unconstitutional and fails to account for state interests and state policy choices.

ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act continues to be among the strongest defenses of patient rights that states can provide despite the Supreme Court’s June 2012 ruling—where the majority of the Supreme Court agreed with ALEC’s position that the individul mandate was uncsontitutional under the Commerce Clause, the opinion nonetheless upheld the mandate as a tax.

The measure serves to protect freedom of choice as ongoing litigation makes its way through the courts, would prevent a single-payer system from taking hold at the state level, and would protect against a state-level individual mandate if the federal health law is ultimately repealed.